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Trials and Tribble-ations (episode)
Series: DS9 Season: 5 Original Airdate: 1996-11-04 Production Number: 503 Year: 2373 Stardate: 4523.7 Story by: Ira Steven Behr & Hans Beimler & Robert Hewitt Wolfe Teleplay by: Ronald D. Moore & René Echevarria Directed by: Jonathan West A vengeful Klingon spy takes the Defiant back in time to kill Captain James T. Kirk. Summary Lucsly and Dulmer from Temporal Investigations arrive on DS9 and Sisko recounts the events of the recent past. The Cardassian government had expressed a desire to return one of the Bajoran Orbs, so the Defiant went to Cardassia Prime to collect it. Without knowing which orb it was or even if it were genuine, Captain Sisko secured it in crew quarters to be authenticated on Bajor. Before leaving Cardassia Prime, Barry Waddle came aboard -- a human merchant who had been trapped on Cardassia when the Klingons attacked. He is an elderly, apparently harmless man. Halfway back to DS9, Chief O'Brien announces a massive surge in chroniton radiation around the ship as the entire bridge glows brightly. The viewscreen shows nothing but white noise. The ship drops out of warp and decloaks as someone activates the transporter. Sisko orders Lieutenant Commander Dax to get the ship back under cloak as O'Brien repairs the viewscreen. When the image is restored the crew are shocked to see the original [[USS Enterprise (NCC-1701)|USS Enterprise]], in orbit of Deep Space Station K-7 on Stardate 4523.7 (TOS: The Trouble with Tribbles) -- James Kirk's ship. The Defiant crew discovers that Wattle had stunned the deputy guarding the Orb and then transported off the ship. What's more, they learn that his real name is Arne Darvin -- a Klingon altered to look human. The younger Darvin had been -- no, was -- on K-7 posing as a Federation official in order to poison a shipment of quadrotriticale and thus sabotage the Federation's efforts to colonize Sherman's Planet. The Defiant crew don't know where Darvin went or what he plans to do, so all they can do is search for him -- and do it without being noticed. The crew discard their 24th century Starfleet uniforms and don Kirk-era uniforms -- Sisko in a gold Command uniform wearing Lieutenant's stripes, O'Brien in a red support uniform and Bashir in Medical blue. Dax appears in female uniform appropriate to the era and Odo and Worf arrive dressed as civilian traders. With a final warning from Sisko to avoid contact with anyone from that time period as much as possible, the crew beams out -- Odo and Worf to K-7 and Sisko, Dax, O'Brien, and Bashir to the Enterprise. Aboard the Enterprise, O'Brien and Bashir learn to use an old-style turbolift and both pairs scan for Darvin using their 23rd century tricorders, but without finding him so far. Dax reminisces about the era. Meanwhile, aboard K-7 Odo learns that Darvin had been on the station not long ago but still doesn't know where he is now. He watches as Cyrano Jones entices Lieutenant Uhura with a tribble, and when Worf arrives shortly thereafter Odo has acquired a tribble of his own which infuriates Worf. He explains that the Klingon Empire had sent hundreds of warriors to eradicate tribbles in the 23rd century. The Enterprise goes to Red Alert as the [[IKS Gr'oth|IKS Gr'oth]] -- a Klingon D-7 Battlecruiser approaches the station. Dax immediately recognizes it as Koloth's ship -- someone she knew as Curzon. Nervous about letting Dax near her old friend, Sisko orders Bashir and O'Brien over to K-7. There, they tease Odo and Worf for sitting at the bar while they were crawling through conduits on the Enterprise, but they're interrupted as Pavel Chekov, Montgomery Scott and Freeman enter. O'Brien is convinced they're looking at James T. Kirk himself but Bashir points out that Freeman is actually wearing Lieutenant's stripes. More importantly, the waitress points out Klingons sitting in either corner of the room who look nothing like Commander Worf. Bashir and O'Brien speculate about genetic engineering and viral mutations but Worf refuses to discuss it. Meanwhile, Korax is talking down Chekov and Scotty, who are restraining themselves. When Korax insults the Enterprise, Scotty jumps up and punches him. Everyone in the bar quickly joins the fight, including Bashir, O'Brien, Worf, and Odo. Kirk repremands his crew -- including Bashir and O'Brien -- but they are released. Meanwhile, Odo and Worf have captured Darvin in the midst of the fight on K-7 and beamed him back to the Defiant. There he reveals his plan -- to kill Kirk with a bomb hidden in a tribble! Sisko and Dax opt to scan the Enterprise using its internal sensors (meaning they must go to the bridge itself) while everyone else searches K-7 (excluding Worf, who cannot face any more tribbles). After scanning the ship and finding nothing, Sisko and Dax realize that the explosive tribble may be in the cargo holds on K-7. They beam over and search frantically through the hold, finding the explosive just in time to have Major Kira beam it into space before it explodes. The Enterprise crew goes about their business, and the Defiant crew uses the Orb of Time to return to the 24th century. Before they go, Sisko brings a duty roster PADD to Kirk for approval as a pretense for meeting the famed captain. Dulmer and Lucsly grudgingly admit there was probably no harm done, and depart quietly, unaware that Deep Space 9 had become infested with tribbles itself. Memorable Quotes * "You're not contending it was a Predestination Paradox?" "No." "Good. We hate those." — Dulmer and Lucsly * "Was that a joke?" "No." "Good. We hate those too." — Dulmer and Lucsly * "A hundred and five years, one month, and twelve days ago." "A Friday." — Dulmer and Lucsly '' (this is a possible reference to Joe Friday of Dragnet, although the names Dulmur and Lucsly are anagrams of characters of the X-Files) '' * "I'm a doctor, not an historian." — Bashir '' (Doctor Leonard H. McCoy often said lines along this construction as in: , ― "I am a doctor, not a … " — Doctor Leonard H. McCoy)'' * "We do not discuss it with outsiders." - Worf, when the lack of cranial ridges on Kirk-era Klingons is noted. Background Information * Quark appeared in this episode, but had no spoken lines. * This episode was broadcast the year of Star Trek's 30th anniversary and was written as a tribute to the original series. It was also the sequel to TOS: "The Trouble with Tribbles". * An earlier idea for the 30th anniversary episode was to revisit Sigma Iotia II, from the episode "A Piece of the Action", where we would discover imitators of Kirk and Spock, as a social commentary on the Trekkie phenomenon. But the writers decided to go with "The Trouble with Tribbles". * The clip featuring Sisko meeting Kirk was juxtaposed from "Mirror, Mirror". * George Takei (Hikaru Sulu) does not appear, this was, however, remedied by his appearance in Star Trek: Voyager's 30th Anniversary episode "Flashback". * The names of the temporal investigators, Dulmer and Lucsly, are anagrams of "Mulder" and "Scully", the paranormal investigators of The X-Files. * The term "D-7", in reference to the original Klingon battle cruiser, started out as an inside joke between Shatner and Nimoy. It eventually became a reference to this style of battleship, but it wasn't "official" until this episode. * The difference in appearance of TOS and the TNG/DS9/VOY Klingons, first recognized as canon here, would later be addressed in the Star Trek: Enterprise episodes "Affliction" and "Divergence." * This episode is summarized in the novel Trials and Tribble-ations. * This episode also contains possibly the first reference to the NX Class Enterprise. After Sisko mentions the Defiant was in front of the Enterprise, Dulmer tells him to be more specific, as there had been five. Lucsly corrects him and says there had been six. Goofs * In the script of this episode Nilz Baris' name is misspelled "Barris". Links and References Main Cast * Avery Brooks as Benjamin Sisko * Rene Auberjonois as Odo * Michael Dorn as Worf * Terry Farrell as Jadzia Dax * Cirroc Lofton as Jake Sisko * Colm Meaney as Miles O'Brien * Armin Shimerman as Quark * Alexander Siddig as Julian Bashir * Nana Visitor as Kira Nerys Guest Stars *Jack Blessing as Dulmur *James W. Hansen as Lucsly *Charlie Brill as Arne Darvin/Barry Waddle *Leslie Ackerman as the Waitress *Charles S. Chun as the Engineer *Deirdre Imershein as Watley *Mark Allen Shepherd as Morn (uncredited) Cast of "The Trouble with Tribbles" *William Shatner as James T. Kirk *Leonard Nimoy as Spock *DeForest Kelley as Leonard McCoy *Walter Koenig as Chekov *Nichelle Nichols as Uhura *James Doohan as Scotty *Stanley Adams as Cyrano Jones *Paul Baxley as Freeman *Whit Bissel as Mr. Lurry *Charlie Brill as Arne Darvin *Michael Pataki as Korax *Guy Ramond as Bartender *David L. Ross as Galloway *William Schallert as Nilz Baris (Barris) *Eddie Paskey as Leslie References alternate timeline; Antarean glow water (Antares system); auxiliary communications juncture; Bajor; Bajorans; Cardassia Prime; Cardassians; Cestus III; chicken sandwich; chroniton radiation; cloaking device; coffee; command division; ''Constitution''-class; D7 class; Dax, Curzon; Dax, Emony; Deep Space K-7; Denebian slime devil (Denebian); Department of Temporal Investigations; ''Defiant'', USS; duotronic sensor system (duotronics); Elementary Temporal Mechanics; ensign; ''Enterprise'', USS; ''Enterprise''-E, USS; fish juice; food processor; Gorn; ''Gr'oth'', IKS; Hall of Warriors; internal sensors; Koloth; Klingons; Klingon augment virus; Klingon battle cruiser; Klingon Empire; Klingon Intelligence; Klingon Imperial Fleet; kevas; ''Lexington'', USS; lieutenant; lilac; medical tricorder; ''Nash'', USS; navigational computer; operations division; O'Brien, Keiko; Ol' Miss; Orb of Prophecy; Orb of Time; Orb of Wisdom; predestination paradox; quadrotriticale; raktajino; red alert; shore leave; Spican flame gem (Spica); Tarkalean tea (Tarkalean); temporal violation; time loop; transporter; transtator; tri-cobalt device; tricorder; trident scanner; Trills; trillium; tribbles. 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